This coffee table got a modern new look!I started with this coffee table from the thrift store. I liked the style but it was looking pretty orange.When I bought it, I thought the top was fake laminate wood grain. My original plan was to add a pine wood planked top. Fortunately, I decided to try sanding it first and found gorgeous white oak!The front leg was missing a pretty large chunk so I filled it with wood filler.I spent a long time sanding this topIt took me about an hour to get halfway done with the top. My arm was getting sore and I was getting frustrated so I decided to try Citristrip for the other half. I added a thick coat and let it sit for an hour.When I came back and tried removing the finish, it was a nasty sticky mess. With a whole lot of elbow grease, I managed to scrape off the remaining finish, but it did not remove cleanly at all. I worked much harder trying to scrap off the finish than I would have if I had just sanded the whole thing.In the end, I had to sand the entire top to get a uniform appearance and clean it up so I could add new stain. I also went ahead and sanded the rest of the piece.I painted the body with Behr Perfect Taupe latex paint. I began staining the top with Minwax Polyshades Espresso. This is stain and polyurethane in one coat. It doesn’t give as as much control over the color as you have using stain and polyurethane separately but for the most part, I’m pretty happy with the results and it saves time.I decided to use the original hardware but it took some scrubbing to get it looking niceTime to reapply the hardware! I told myself when I removed the doors, make sure to keep track of which door went on which side. Well, once I started painting, I mixed them up, of course. It took some trial and error to get the doors reattached on the right sides.I had to play around with the door catches quite a bit to get both doors to close correctly. But I got them figured out!I added a second coat of polyshades Espresso and it’s done!
Quinnfiredesign 